Will Personal Injury Awards 2010 Match Last Year's Success Story?

By Author: Adam Lee
Total Articles: 4717
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The winner of The Outstanding Case of the Year category at the 2010 Personal Injury Awards ceremony will have a tough task emulating the achievement of last year's winner.

Thursday, November 18th is the date to put in your diary if you wish to attend the awards when the Millennium Mayfair Hotel in London will play host to the great and the good of the Personal Injury Awards industry.

Solicitors, barristers, insurers, rehabilitation providers and claims management providers are all sure to be represented on the big evening, with every guest eager to learn who the winners of the 16 categories will be.

These categories include the Claimant Personal Injury Lawyer of the Year, the Barristers' Chamber of the Year and the Young Achiever of the Year.

Perhaps the greatest excitement of the evening will occur when the silver envelope containing the identity of the Outstanding Case of the Year winner is opened.

In 2009, the Corby Case scooped the award - David Wilby QC taking to the stage with colleagues from Old Square Chambers and Park Lane Plowden to receive the prize.
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Mr Wilby's name would have been familiar to many of the people attending the ceremony as the Corby Case which he was so closely involved in made the headlines of many national newspapers that year.

To be nominated for the Outstanding Case of the Year you must have worked on "an exceptional case which resulted in a precedent-setting judgement under challenging circumstances, one which had a demonstrable impact on the wider industry".

Corby certainly satisfied these criteria and the story behind it has been compared to the real-life story which inspired the Hollywood movie Erin Brockovic, starring Julia Roberts.

The case might never have come to court if Joy Shatford hadn't started chatting to Susan McIntyre in a Leeds hospital. Mrs Shatford and Mrs McIntyte discovered that they both lived in Corby. Both had young children. And both mothers had children with hand deformities.

They soon had another thing in common; a conviction that their similar circumstances weren't mere coincidence and that the local council's reclamation work of the former British Steel plant in Corby between 1985 and 1989 had caused their child's disabilities.

The mothers were not alone; it emerged that there were more than 24 children with limb deformities born between 1992 and 1999, at a time when local residents spoke of witnessing "sandstorms of dust" relating to the reclamation work.

Thanks to the work of the likes of David Wilby QC, a judge ruled in July 2009 that Corby Borough Council was "liable in negligence, public nuisance and a breach of statutory duty". The landmark decision was the first in the world to establish a link between toxic waste in the atmosphere and birth defects.

Prior to this, a link had only been established between water pollution and birth defects.

In April of this year Corby Council agreed a financial settlement with families affected by the toxic poisoning.

The case is a reminder of how the Personal Injury Awards industry, of which Claims Direct is a leading player, deals with both large and small compensation claims, putting its expertise to good use in negligence cases involving small and large organisations.

One of the judges involved in running the rule over the Personal Injury Awards nominees is Michael Redfern, a QC who is currently chairing a government inquiry into human tissue analysis at UK nuclear facilities.

The awards' organisers will have been delighted to have Mr Redfern as a judge as according to Chambers and Partners 2008 edition (a respected legal handbook), the QC is "extremely busy, and with good reason, he gets results".

"Getting results" for people who have suffered personal injuries through no fault of their own is the name of the game for all the companies and individuals who will be gathered round the circular dinner tables at this year's awards ceremony.
About Author:
Claims Direct are a No Win No Fee Solicitors.
We specialise in personal injury claims involving road accidents, as well as accidents at work or in public places and medical negligence.